Pullin’ ‘Tubes: Epic-San Edition

And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. About 20 minutes later He invented YouTube and sat in It for anywhere between 6,000 and 1,000 years.

The raw footage from An Acoustic Evening with David Byrne and Richard Thompson is slowly making its way onto YouTube. A user named Patzu this weekend uploaded a full clip of the famed songwriters playing Psycho Killer at the March 24, 1992 performance in Brooklyn, and today it leads off our heavy haul:

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Sunday night I threw an old standby, The Thomas Crown Affair, into the DVD player, and I remembered again how awesome a job they did incorporating Nina Simone’s Sinnerman with Bill Conti’s original score into the film. That flick started The Ace Cowboy Affair with the High Priestess of Soul, and today I pass some Nina onto youse: House of the Rising Sun.
“Dude, did I take way too much of that shit or do the Allman Brothers look really freakin’ Japanese tonight?” Take a gander at the big-in-Japan Natto Brothers Band absolutely nailing the ABB’s Black Hearted Woman. Out of 10, I’d say musically it’s an 8.5; comedically it’s an 11.
Many MVP debates in professional sports center around one simple premise: Switch Player A with Player B from their respective teams and try to imagine which team would fare better. With this in mind, I’m retroactively and posthumously awarding Jerry Garcia the 1989 Guitar MVP. Not only did he propel the Dead to a great year, but as we see in this video, he also stepped into bands that sounded like the Miami Sound Machine and made them better. Check out this clip of Jerry and Ruben Blades on Muevete from Latino Session (Jerome takes over at about 5:45).
This song is either called For Those About To Rock or For Those About To Strut the Stage Shirtless and In Boy Shorts. I’m never sure which is which. Either way, it’s always cool to see AC/DC live: We salute you.
Umphrey’s McGee has a surprising amount of haters. Maybe this contingent doesn’t like the band’s structured jams or proggy rock, or maybe they’re all self-loathing pedophiles that don’t want to put themselves in a small, sweaty room with that many 15-year-olds. But even the haters have to admit that Umphrey’s plays some of the best and most inspired covers of any touring band. When they’re not ripping Hot for Teacher or King Crimson’s Red or Baba O’Riley a new arsehole, they’re tackling humorous covers to add a little technical levity to the show. UM broke out a rousing rendition of the SNL Dick In a Box sketch on New Year’s Eve at the Aragon, and it’s as well-performed as you’d expect. And if you’re in the anti-UM camp, just remember, if Phish did this it’d be fucking epic.